Pet-store owner Angel Duratti used to sell puppies at her store, some of which were sick or had genetic defects. Customers would call days after buying a puppy and say the illness was so severe the animal needed to be put down. Some would ask Duratti to be there when it was.
She said she witnessed so many deaths that she decided to stop selling puppies in her store for good.
In an effort to encourage other pet stores to do the same, Minnesota legislators are pushing two bills through the House and Senate that effectively ban the sale of dogs and cats from commercial pet stores. Advocates hope that the change will reduce the demand for puppy and kitten mills.
The House bill was passed on to the Judiciary Finance and Civil Law Division on Tuesday for further discussion.
"This is really about a more humane way of doing business here in Minnesota when it comes to welcoming a new fur baby into families," said Sen. Karla Bigham, D-Cottage Grove, the lead author of the Senate bill.
Some Minnesota cities, such as Roseville and Eden Prairie, have enacted similar pet-store ordinances. Five states are considering humane pet-store legislation, said Christine Coughlin, Minnesota state director of the Humane Society of the United States.
At the House hearing Tuesday, opponents of the bills said that banning dog or cat sales will financially affect pet stores, while advocates argue that profits can still be made with the sale of toys, food and other pet necessities.
According to the Humane Society, puppy mills breed dogs for profit, often keeping the animals in unsanitary and inhumane conditions. There are about 10,000 active puppy mills in the United States, according to the Humane Society.
"Pet stores that continue to sell animals from puppy mills are continuing to perpetuate puppy mills and continuing to perpetuate animal cruelty, and that's just something that Minnesotans don't want to see," Coughlin said. "We can do better."
The bill would still allow pet stores to provide space for animals from nonprofit humane societies and to host adoption events. It would not affect breeders who are "responsible," meaning they meet with prospective owners and provide the animal with humane living conditions, Bigham said. The change would not affect humane hunting dog, sledding dog or farm animal breeders, she added.
Duratti, who owns Angel's Pet World in Hudson, Wis., said the store stopped selling puppies in 2011. When sales first started eight years earlier, Duratti said, she went to the puppy mills with a veterinarian and they were both satisfied with the dogs and their health. But things started to change as the puppy mill started to breed more puppies. Many of the animals she received were sick with kennel cough, Giardia or genetic issues.
"The bigger it got," Duratti said of the mill, "the sicker the dogs were." Duratti also testified at the Tuesday hearing.
The store started to pay veterinarian bills for its customers who bought sick puppies because Duratti said it did not feel right to charge the customers for them.
Some of the bills were thousands of dollars. It got to a point where the toll, both financially and emotionally, was too much.
Angel's Pet World now conducts regular adoption events through nonprofits such as Lucky Paws Midwest and Coco's Heart Dog Rescue, among others. Duratti said that at first rescue centers were wary of the store because it used to sell dogs from puppy mills, but she is much happier now that she made the change, even though it was difficult.
"It's scary, but if you work hard to get customers back in your store and show those rescues that you want to do the right thing, you can prosper," Duratti said. "You can be successful."
Michelle Griffith (michelle.griffith@startribune.com) is a University of Minnesota student on assignment for the Star Tribune.
